Neuroblastoma Symptoms | Causes | Treatments

Neuroblastoma can be caused by many things because it’s not totally known and understood. It has been studied and followed, showing that many cases are genetic or passed down from generations. Many ongoing investigations are leaning towards certain chemicals also being a factor in Neuroblastoma found in some children.

A lot of people who get neuroblastoma seem to be children and infants. There is a yearly amount of over 600 new found cases every year and over 55 percent of neuroblastoma cases are in children under 2 years of age. Sometimes the neuroblastoma can form in nerve tissue in the abdomen, neck, pelvis and chest.

Spontaneous regression is common in neuroblastoma to go from an undifferentiated state to a benign state. It’s also classified into 3 different categories of risk stages; the categories are low, intermediate and high risk.

Some symptoms of this disease are listed below but are not limited to these alone:

Pail or discolored skin

A tumor in some spots can cause bruising

Constipation can be another sign

If the stomach is swollen it could be from a tumor in the abdomen

Pain in the legs and hips can be from bone lesions

If a tumor is pressing on the spinal cord weakness may appear as a symptom because of this

There are different stages for this disease and some treatments are designed for different stages of it. The different stages are listed like so:

Stage L1

Stage L2

Stage M

Stage MS

Many low risk patients with this disease can be cured with surgery and no chemicals, while some need little attention in order to recover from the effects. The intermediate risk patients of neuroblastoma can get treatment with chemicals used for treating the illness and with surgery. Many medicines can help with this, it all depends on the stage of the disease and the doctors preferred method of treatment. Most people who get treatment early for neuroblastoma have a great success rate of curing the sickness but most cases categorized as a high risk stage are lowered.